


See the Light

by petitechatonne



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: All Romantic Relationships are Background, Ambiguous Relationships, Big Brother Grant Ward, Brother-Sister Relationships, Found Family Trope but on Steroids, Gen, Grant Ward Feels, Grant Ward's Sister Centric, Hydra Grant Ward, I've never commited a crime in my life so bare with me in the illegal stuff, Inspired by Leverage, Like where was Grant's sister???, Major Original Character(s), Moral Ambiguity, Morally Ambiguous Character, Parent Phil Coulson, Past Child Abuse, Phil Coulson and his obsession with adopting strays, Phil Coulson is literally a tired dad, Possible Grant Ward Redemption, Pre-HYDRA Reveal, Set in Season 1, Why did no one ever talk about her???, but not a crossover - Freeform, no beta we die like side characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:09:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26719579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/petitechatonne/pseuds/petitechatonne
Summary: Most people don't believe they exist. They write it off as bad luck or unfortunate circumstancesThose who do, call them Loxley. Grifers, thieves, who bring down large corrupt corporations for fun.Coulson didn't believe it either. Not until they destroyed Ian Quinn and dropped him in his lap.Now Coulson is hellbent on recruiting them to take down the rest of the Centipede program.
Relationships: Grant Ward & Agents of SHIELD Team, Grant Ward's Sister & Agents of SHIELD Team, Grant Ward's Sister & Grant Ward, Grant Ward's Sister & Original Male Character(s), Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Skye | Daisy Johnson/Grant Ward
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	1. And it Begins

**Author's Note:**

> This is more of a prolog to establish Charlotte/Thea and where she came from. I really like the idea of Ward having a sister, and what that means for his character. I also really like exploring what exactly Garrett's abuse and manipulation did to him, as well as the choices he made. I wanted to explore what it would be like for him to have someone in his past who cared and believed in him. That doesn't mean redemption will be easy, I'm still unsure if I actually want to redeem him or not.

The Chicago sky was gloomy, and the ground covered in rain. It was days like these Charlotte wished she had somewhere to go, days she _almost_ missed having a roof over her head.

Almost.

She was short for her age, but that was an advantage. No one paid her any mind when they could only see the top of her head, and when she looked like she knew where she was going. The odd good Samaritan would stop her and ask where her parents were. Those were the people she robbed blind.

She batted her eyelashes and flashed her best puppy dog eyes. They never suspected until she was gone.

But today was different.

For the first time ever, when Charlotte reached into a lady’s jacket, and easy target by most standards, the woman caught her wrist.

“I don’t think that belongs to you,” the woman raised her eyebrows, gesturing to the wallet in Charlotte’s hand.”

“I – I’m so sorry ma’am,” Charlotte’s voice trembled, but this was the moment she'd been training herself for. She let her eyes water and a sob escape her lips, looking as pathetic as she could. “I just – my brother he’s in the hospital, and my mom can’t pay – “

“I’ll stop you there,” the woman held up her other hand to cut Charlotte off, “but the waterworks are a nice touch.”

Now Charlotte was panicking. No one had ever caught her in a lie, not even her own parents.

“You’re good kid, I’ll give you that. If I wasn’t so paranoid you might’ve even gotten away with it. What’s your name, your real name?”

Charlotte had no idea what was going on, but there were police officers across the street and the woman still had a hold of her, and while the woman was petite Charlotte was pretty sure she wouldn’t win in a fight.

“Charlotte.” There was a pause and they both just looked at each for a few moments. Unable to contain her rising anxiety anymore Charlotte broke the silence. “Are you going to turn me in?”

The woman smiled in a way that she had only ever seen Grant smile when he was about to do something he knew he shouldn’t.

“No, I’m not.”

Charlotte released a breath she didn’t know she was holding, feeling her anxiety settle a bit.

The woman crouched so she was eye level with Charlotte, her blue eyes staring through Charlotte’s brown ones. It was like she was searching for something in Charlotte, only she had no idea what that was.

“I’m going to train you,” with that the woman held up the necklace that Charlotte had wrapped around her neck, her no-good smile turning into a real one.

Charlotte lifted her hand to her neck, and sure enough, the necklace was gone.

The woman took her wallet and let go of Charlotte’s wrist. Charlotte just stared at the necklace, unable to fathom how the woman took it off of her. Charlotte hadn’t even felt the ghost of a touch, and that never happened. Charlotte was always aware of people’s hands, always made sure to keep them in her sights at all times.

“I can teach you how to do that, how to be the best at it,” Charlotte raised her eyes to meet playful blue ones.

It sounded too good to be true. Nothing like this came without a price, but she had nothing to offer this woman.

Her hesitation must have been clear because the woman’s smiled softened, and she handed the necklace back.

“I’m Parker by the way. Even if you don’t let me teach you, let me buy you dinner.”

It was a peace offering that Charlotte couldn’t refuse.

Charlotte nodded and followed Parker, who had a new bounce in her step, to a mom-and-pop dinner down the road. Charlotte told herself that this wasn’t going to be permanent, that she was going to let this woman buy her dinner and then ditch her.

But she didn’t.

In the end, Parker was just what she seemed. She was cunning and mischievous, with wonky morals and a weird view of the world. But so was Charlotte. Maybe that’s why the got along so well, they both had seen the worst humanity had to offer but had seen it at its best too, and didn’t know how to see the world anymore because of it.

In the end, she let Parker train her. For all the weirdness that was Parker, she was undeniably a genius and the best thief in the world. Charlotte learned every trick of the trade, learned the ins and outs of security systems and schematics. She also learned people. How to read them, how to trick them, and twist them around her finger. How to make them give her whatever she wanted and thank her for taking it.

In the end, Charlotte Ward died the day Parker picked her up. The same day Thea Bell, the best grifter ever not known, was born. And it would be years before Thea even thought about Charlotte Ward again.


	2. The Myth of Loxley

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is still a lot of exposition, but it's Coulson centric, so hopefully it's not too boring. This takes place after 1x14 and diverges from canon from there.

Phil Coulson was having a bad couple weeks.

First, Skye got shot, then he found out that Fury had brought him back to life with an alien corpse he conveniently kept around for emergencies, then almost got blown up, and _then_ he found out that Ian Quinn had escaped SHIELD custody. There was no evidence, no trail, no activity on anything they were monitoring. He was just gone.

Skye’s recovery, her concerningly _fast_ recovery, was the only good thing to happen since she’d taken those bullets. He almost didn’t want to let her back on the Bus and back into the line of fire, but he knew she’d never let him sideline her like that. That and he needed her. There was no finding Quinn or the Clairvoyant without her.

“Coulson,” Melinda May burst into Coulson’s office in a very un-May-like fashion, “you have to come and see this.”

He followed her into the briefing area with the rest of the team. Skye was furiously typing on her tablet while Fitz was working on the control panel.

He was just about to ask what the hell was going on when he saw it.

On the screens usually reserved for briefings, there was a live stream of Ian Quinn tied up in a chair with a _Christmas_ bow on his head. There was latitude and longitude across the bottom of the screen, and a newspaper with the current date propped up in the background.

“May – “

“Wheels up in two.”

May moved toward the front of the Bus and Fitz and Simmons left muttering about something flying around the lad. Skye continued to tap at her tablet, while Ward was glaring holes into the screen. Coulson moved next to Skye, watching what he assumed were no good notifications pop up left and right. “Talk to me Skye."

“I’ve got nothing. Whoever's doing this, is bouncing the signal off of like a hundred different foreign frequencies. I’d need weeks to even narrow down where it’s streaming from, let only who’s streaming it.” Skye threw down her tablet in frustration and ran her fingers through her hair, her gaze focused on Quinn's struggling figured. “Why would someone do this? I mean, I know _why_ someone would _want_ to - he's class A douchebag - but why hand him over like this?”

“That’s the million-dollar question.” Quinn jerked around on the screen, trying to yell through the gag in his mouth. Coulson could admit, he was probably enjoying that part a little too much.

“Whatever the reason,” Ward said moving next to Skye, “it’s probably going to come back and bite us.”

Now that, Coulson could agree with.

* * *

When they got there Quinn was still tied up, with a bow on his head, struggling against the zip ties that left him tied to an office chair.

Quinn glared at Coulson as he approached. “Hello, Ian. Hope you enjoyed your few days of sunlight, where you’re going there isn’t too much of that.”

Quinn squirmed as Ward hauled him up and took him away. The rest of the team began searching the room for any evidence of how he got like this.

Coulson approached the newspaper that had been in the background of the live stream, only to notice an envelope with _'To SHIELD'_ written across it. He picked it up and pulled out a cheap Christmas card from inside. There was a picture of Snoopy and his Christmas tree on the front, and Coulson couldn’t help but laugh at the writing inside.

_'An early Christman present, from us to you. Try not to lose him this time, he’s a bitch to tie up.'_

“Coulson, what’s that?” Skye asked. She was currently scouring the rather impressive computer set up in the large office.

It was a nice office with expensive leather chairs, expensive liquor, a great view, and fortunately for them lots and lots of paperwork.

“A card. Seems like someone wants us to know this is their handy work.” He showed her the card before handing it to Simmons. “Run this through the handwriting system, see if we can get a match.”

“Right away sir,” Simmons took the card and rushed out of the office as May caught Coulson's attention.

“Look at all this paperwork,” May told Coulson, gesturing to multiple filing cabinets in an adjoined closet. “It’s all financials. Off-shore accounts, money laundering, bribes, everything needed to not only bring down Quinn but Quinn World Wide, too.”

“Okay, this has gone from strange, to weird,” Coulson said as he skimmed a file, "and I've seen some weird things." Coulson looked through the files, and sure enough, almost all of Quinn’s shady financials were listed and accounted for. Most of them were things that SHIELD couldn’t prove or didn’t have a warrant to look for. It was enough to shut everything Quinn had ever touched, and that was on top of the attempted murder.

“They could have just taken the money for themselves,” May pointed out, “So why didn’t they?”

Coulson couldn’t answer that. No one could.

When the search of Quinn’s office didn't get them any closer to their mystery _gift-giver_ they all reconvened on the Bus to compare the few notes they did have.

“We know that whoever they are, they wanted Quinn behind bars,” Coulson started. They were in the briefing area facing the screens with hundreds of files confiscated from Quinn's office. 

“She didn’t just want him behind bars,” Skye interrupted, “They wanted him destroyed.”

With a few taps, Skye pulled up numerous articles and social media posts detailing Quinn’s illegal activities. Everything from the money laundering, to stiffing families on workers comp, in forging environmental permits. The media was having a field day tearing Quinn's philanthropist act apart.

“So they wanted to ruin him,” Coulson looked between the articles and the files in his hand, “it wasn’t enough to just put him behind bars. They made sure he could never recover from this, legally and publicly.”

“And they weren’t in it for the money,” Ward added, “otherwise they would have just stolen all of his assets before turning him in.”

May pulled a file out of the stack in front of them, reading off of it. “This document says that Quinn withdrew hundreds of millions of dollars from hours before all of this went down and gave it to families who have been trying to get workers comp for a huge accident at one of Quinn’s factories. It went out as works comp, which means -”

"-SHIELD can't touch it," Coulson finished. May handed him the file, but it did little to clarify anything for him.

There were hundreds of families listed on the document, each getting a huge sum of money much larger than anything their lawyers were asking.

“So steal from the rich and give to the poor?” Fitz tilted his head to look over the document. “Then make sure they can never get rich again.”

“A modern-day Robin Hood? Fascinating,” Simmons joined him.

Skye straightened, smiling toward Coulson. “No, not Robin Hood. Loxley.”

“Loxley?” Fizsimmons said in unison, both looking up at her, but her eyes didn’t leave Coulson’s.

“Loxley’s a myth Skye,” Ward told her, crossing his arms.

“No, they’re not. I know, I’ve worked with them before.” All eyes were on Skye now. She had a certain mischievous shine in her eyes that Coulson learned to be wary of.

“Worked with them?” The edge in May's question made her disapproval apparent.

“Well, I mean – kind of. I worked with one of them. He was foster siblings with Miles and the two were pretty close when I first meet him. Then sometime last year he called Miles for help on a project. Miles was busy doing something for the Rising Tied, but Miles told him I was just as good as he was, so he asked if I could help them out.”

Skye moved over to the controls and brought up the little information that SHIELD had collected on Loxley, along with numerous news articles. “When I heard about it, I thought it was just coincidence - just like, bad things happening to bad people that were weirdly similar, and people just wanted someone to blame. After I meet them, I realized that it wasn't a myth, that it was all real. Turns out that Loxley is a team – kinda - not just one person.” She brought up the blurry pictures of Loxley suspects, most of them only showing a silhouette or the back of a head. The pictures varied in suspected gender, but most of them were of women.

Skye leaned against the control table, smiling like a kid with a cookie. “Loxley is two people mostly, but they bring in other people when they need to. It’s pretty genius actually. He explained it as they do all the heavy lifting. They come up with the con, what it'll take to get it done, and then they find people willing to help them if they need it.”

Surprisingly, it made sense. Coulson had heard of Loxley, whispers here and there but nothing concrete. Most of SHIELD dismissed it as a myth, any agent assigned to a suspected Loxley case complained for days about it. He had never really given it any thought, always to busy with more important cases than a suspected con-artist conspiracy theory.

“And you were one of these people?” Ward asked in his _holier-than-thou_ tone.

Skye glared at him hard before bringing up an article on a CEO, who had been exposed as one of the leaders of an elite human trafficking ring. Coulson remembered that case, he had been one of the agents to arrest the other ring leaders after the guy flipped. It was a particularly nasty arrest, but they had managed no civilian casualties and save a lot of women and children that day.

“This is who they were after, who I helped put away.” Skye meet Ward’s eyes. He looked as surprised and embarrassed as much as Grant Ward could. “These are the types of people they go after. Corrupt, immoral, vicious people who have no regard for anyone but themselves. People the law can’t touch. They expose them for what they are and make sure they can never hurt anyone again.” The passion in Skye’s voice left no room for argument.

Coulson stared at the screen, the gears turning in his head. These people were able to find Quinn when all of SHIELD’s recourses couldn’t even pick up the smallest trace. It was astounding and a little frightening.

Coulson turned to Skye, “Can you contact them?” 

She hesitated for a moment before nodding, “There are a few back doors I can try.”

“Good,” he turned back to the screen. Their handy work was thorough, they left no rock unturned. They went outside of the box, outside of the law, and did things Coulson could only dream of. They were perfect. “Let them know we got their present, and I’d like to return the favor.”

“Sir,” Ward approached him like Coulson had finally lost his marbles. Then again, maybe he had. “What are you suggesting?”

Coulson smiled, still focused on the screen. “Well, they like to take down corrupt corporations, right? Do you know any worst than the Centipede program?”


	3. Chapter 3

Thea liked to think she was good at her job.

Planning for every possible outcome of every scenario wasn’t exactly easy but she was good at it. At least that what she told herself as bullets flew past her hiding spot behind a shipping container.

The plan _had_ been to get into the shipping yard office, get the transcripts that they so annoyingly kept on paper, and get out.

She hadn't expected Ian Quinn's associates to move this fast.

“For the record,” Danny’s voice crackled through her comm, “I told you so.”

She waited for a pause in the gunfire before throwing a rock to her left and bolting behind the shipping container to her right.

“Very helpful,” She spat out as her body collided with the ground. “How about you make yourself useful and find me a way out?”

One of the ship-yard-goons circled around the side, still looking in the direction she had thrown the rock. She quickly swept his legs and kicked him in the face. She took the pistol he dropped on his way down, hitting him over the head with it and knocking him out.

“Alright, I’m going to set off the motion detectors on the east side, get ready to move.”

Sure enough, as soon as Danny finished, a piercing alarm screeched from the other side of the dock. Thea wasted no time slipping between shipping crates, gun at the ready, until she had reached the entrance of the shipping yard. She could see Danny's black van in the parking lot across the street, the only problem was the lack of cover between here and there. 

A bullet shot from behind her hit her bicep. More bullets started flying past her, the goons had caught onto Danny's trick. Thea ran as fast as she could, dodging the weaving of bullets being sent her way. She threw the back door of the van open, yelling at Danny to drive.

Danny ripped out of the parking lot, the goons still firing at them, sending the office chair in the back flying at Thea. Unfortunately for them, the goons had their own cars they were now pursuing them in.

Thea clumsily climbed into the front seat as Danny wove them in and out of traffic.

“I told you we should have sat on the information,” Danny said right before he took a sharp right turn, throwing Thea at the door.

“I know, I’m sorry okay,” Thea grabbed her oh-shit handle as Danny made a sharp left. “I thought with Quinn out of the picture – Jesus Christ, Danny!” She cursed as Danny ran a red light almost getting them t-boned.

“Well, next time, if you don’t want me as the getaway driver, the listen to me!” The van went over a hill, and the speed caused them to fly off the ground for a moment.

Thea cursed as the van hit the ground with a jolt, before taking a sharp right into a hidden alley. They watched as the goons drove right past them, unaware they had gotten off the road. Thea was clutching the dashboard and her bleeding gun wound, her breathing heavy from the adrenaline and pure terror of Danny’s driving.

“Get out, I’m driving.”

“Aw Thei –“

“No way Baby Driver. Out.” Danny pouted but got out of the driver's seat.

The drive back to their hotel was mostly silent, save the humming from the computer system set up in the back.

* * *

“I told you so!” Danny yelled at Thea.

Thea was cleaning up the tools that Danny used to close her gun wound. “I said I was sorry –“ Thea rolled her eyes, not bothering to look up.

“No, I mean look at this.” Danny gestured to the intricate computer set up in front of him.

Thea got up and leaned over Danny’s shoulder, pushing her brown hair behind her ear to see the screen.

_‘We got your present, very thoughtful of you. We got you something too, something that will help you take down all of Quinn’s business partners. What do you say?’_

Thea read and re-read the message until it was burning into her brain.

“How did they get this to us?” It went unsaid that no one had ever been able to get anything past Danny before, especially not government organizations. Sure SHIELD was a spy agency, but they were still government, they still had rules. Not to mention, SHIELD didn’t believe their team even existed.

“That’s the thing,” Danny typed a few lines, his dark hands flying across the keyboard, “it’s someone we’ve worked with before.” On the screen was a picture of a girl she remembered helping them on a job a year ago. They had brought in almost every person they could on the job, it had been one of their toughest to pull off.

“Okay,” the gears in Thea’s head started turning, and she started putting the pieces together. “So, Quinn shows up, and they what? Have her in custody or something, and when she hears about him she recognizes it as our MO?"

Danny continued to type, most of it Thea didn’t understand, until he was in SHIELD’s system.

“Says here she’s consulting. Didn't think her the type.”

“So either they're looking to arrest us,” Thea looked into Danny’s dark brown eyes, “or they really want our help.”

They stared at each other, neither needing words to know exactly what the other was thinking.

“Hell no!” Danny pushed himself up from his chair, throwing his hands in the air. “Absolutely not!”

“Come on,” Thea followed him as he walked away, “this is our chance to really find out what Quinn is up to. You’ve seen what he’s doing to people, he’s turning them into science experiments! You know they have to be desperate if they’re asking us for help.”

“Exactly! They probably don’t know any more than we do, so we’re better off not messing with the agency that makes people like us disappear.”

Thea crossed her arms, “Don’t be so dramatic – “

“Dramatic,” Danny’s voice was slowly getting louder. “These people kidnap criminals for fun. They torture people, and the lock them us, and they feed them the same stuff as pigs!”

Thea sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. He continued to pace for a few moments before she placed her hands on his shoulders, making him stop.

She looked up at him, making eye contact. “We’re not going to get kidnapped or tortured. We can put a stop to one of the worst global operations we’ve ever encountered. We can outsmart SHIELD, we've done it before.”

Danny sighed, lifting his hand to his face rubbing his eyes before dragging it down.

“Fine.” Danny scowled, but Thea beamed bouncing on the balls of her feet. Danny shook his head, going back to his computer. He sat down and prepared a secure channel to reply to SHIELD’s message.

“How do you wanna play this,” He asked her.

Thea hummed, looking at the files she had on Quinn. After a moment she looked up, a sly smile on her lips.

“Truthfully.”


End file.
